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4815 CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions page publish <!-- wp:html --> <div class="blog-info">This article was first published in May 2017; last revised in August 2020.</div> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <!-- formatting-options subnavId:co2 subnavCurrentId:co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions --> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You can&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://github.com/owid/co2-data">download</a></strong>&nbsp;our complete <em>Our World in Data</em> CO<sub>2</sub> and Greenhouse Gas Emissions database.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:separator --> <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <!-- /wp:separator --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3><strong>CO<sub>2</sub> and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Country Profiles</strong></h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>How are emissions changing in each country? Is your country making progress on reducing emissions? We built 207 country profiles which allow you to explore <strong>the statistics for every country in the world</strong>. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Each profile includes <strong>interactive visualizations</strong>, <strong>explanations</strong> of the presented metrics, and the details on the <strong>sources of the data</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>See emissions in your country and how it compares to others:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:html --> <div data-project="co2" class="wp-block-search-country-profile"></div> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5><strong>Our 12 most visited country profiles</strong></h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:group --> <div class="wp-block-group"><!-- wp:list {"className":"covid-country-tiles"} --> <ul class="covid-country-tiles"><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/united-states?country=~USA">United States</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/united-kingdom?country=~GBR">United Kingdom</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china?country=~CHN">China</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/india?country=~IND">India</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/brazil?country=~BRA">Brazil</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/south-africa?country=~ZAF">South Africa</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/germany?country=~DEU">Germany</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/spain?country=~ESP">Spain</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/france?country=~FRA">France</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/canada?country=~CAN">Canada</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/australia?country=~AUS">Australia</a></li><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/sweden?country=~SWE">Sweden</a></li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --></div> <!-- /wp:group --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:owid/help --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Every profile includes five sections</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li><strong>CO<strong><sub>2</sub></strong></strong> <strong>emissions:</strong> How much does a country emit each year? What is the average emissions per person? How much has it emitted over time? How do emissions compare when we correct for trade?</li><li><strong>Coal, oil, gas, cement:</strong> How much CO<sub>2</sub> comes from coal, oil, gas, flaring or cement production?</li><li><strong>Other greenhouse gases:</strong> How much total greenhouse gases does each country emit? How much methane, and nitrous oxide is emitted?</li><li><strong>Emissions by sector:</strong> Which sectors contribute most to emissions? Does transport contribute more or less than electricity; how large are agriculture and land use emissions?</li><li><strong>Carbon and energy efficiency:</strong> How much energy do we use per unit of GDP? How much carbon do we emit per unit of energy?</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/help --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>Why do greenhouse gas emissions matter?</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Global average temperatures have increased by more than 1℃ since pre-industrial times</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/temperature-anomaly" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases – are a primary driver of climate change – and present one of the world's most pressing challenges.{ref}IPCC, 2013:&nbsp;<em>Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</em>&nbsp;[Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp.{/ref} This link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations – especially CO<sub>2</sub> – has been true throughout Earth's history.{ref}Lacis, A. A., Schmidt, G. A., Rind, D., &amp; Ruedy, R. A. (2010). <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6002/356">Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth’s temperature</a>.&nbsp;<em>Science</em>,&nbsp;<em>330</em>(6002), 356-359.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>To set the scene, let's look at how the planet has warmed. In the chart, we see the global average temperature relative to the average of the period between 1961 and 1990.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The red&nbsp;line represents the average annual temperature trend through time, with upper and lower confidence intervals shown in light grey. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We see that over the last few decades, global temperatures have risen sharply&nbsp;— to approximately 0.7℃ higher than our 1961-1990 baseline. When extended&nbsp;back to 1850, we see that temperatures then were a further 0.4℃ colder than they were in our baseline. Overall, this would amount to an average temperature rise of 1.1℃. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Because there are small year-to-year fluctuations in temperature, the specific temperature increase depends on what year we assume to be 'pre-industrial' and the end year we're measuring from. But overall, this temperature rise is in the range of 1 to 1.2℃.{ref}In this chart – using the "Change region" button you can also view these changes by hemisphere (North and South), as well as the tropics (defined as 30 degrees above and below the equator). This shows us that the temperature increase in the North Hemisphere is higher, at closer to 1.4℃ since 1850, and less in the Southern Hemisphere (closer to 0.8℃). Evidence suggests that this distribution is strongly related to ocean circulation patterns (notably the North Atlantic Oscillation) which have resulted in greater warming in the northern hemisphere.<br><br>Delworth, T. L., Zeng, F., Vecchi, G. A., Yang, X., Zhang, L., &amp; Zhang, R. (2016). The North Atlantic Oscillation as a driver of rapid climate change in the Northern Hemisphere.&nbsp;<em>Nature Geoscience</em>,&nbsp;<em>9</em>(7), 509-512. Available <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2738">online</a>.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the main driver of this warming</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>How much of the warming since 1850 can be attributed to human emissions? Almost all of it. The <em>Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</em> (IPCC) states clearly in its AR5 assessment report{ref}IPCC, 2014:&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/">Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a></em>&nbsp;[Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151.{/ref}:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:quote --> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>"Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have increased since the pre-industrial era, driven largely by economic and population growth, and are now higher than ever. This has led to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide that are unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years. <strong>Their effects, together with those of other anthropogenic drivers, have been detected throughout the climate system and are extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.</strong>"</p></blockquote> <!-- /wp:quote --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><br>Aerosols have played a slight cooling role in global climate, and natural variability has played a very minor role. <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans">This article</a> from the <em>Carbon Brief</em>, with interactive graphics showing the relative contributions of different forcings on the climate, explains this very well.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A changing climate has a range of potential ecological, physical, and health impacts, including extreme weather events (such as floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves); sea-level rise; altered crop growth; and disrupted water systems. The most extensive source of analysis on the potential impacts of climatic change can be found in the <em>5th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change </em>(IPCC) report.{ref}2014: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<br> [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1132 pp. Available <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/">online</a>.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>In some regions, warming has – and will continue to be – much greater than the global average</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:image {"id":35010,"sizeSlug":"large"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/berkeley-temp-anomaly-map-800x446.png" alt="" class="wp-image-35010"/><figcaption><em>Local temperatures in 2019 relative to the average temperature in 1951-1980.{ref}Berkeley Earth. Global Temperature Report for 2019. Available at: <a href="http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/">http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/</a>.{/ref}</em></figcaption></figure> <!-- /wp:image --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>When we think about the problem of global warming, a temperature rise of 1℃ can seem small and insignificant. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Not only is it true that 1℃ of rapid warming itself <em>can</em> have significant impacts on climate and natural systems, but also that this 1℃ figure masks the large variations in warming across the world. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the map shown – taken from the <em>Berkeley Earth</em> global temperature report – we see the global distribution of temperature changes in 2019 relative to the period 1951 – 1980.{ref}Berkeley Earth. Global Temperature Report for 2019. Available at: <a href="http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/">http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/</a>.{/ref} This period from 1951 to 1980 is similar to the period global average time series shown in the section above.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are a couple of key points that stand out.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Firstly, the global average temperature rise is usually given as the combined temperature change across both land and the sea surface. But it's important to note that land areas change temperature, both warming and cooling much more than oceanic areas.{ref}This is because water has a higher '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_heat_capacity#:~:text=The%20specific%20heat%20capacity%20of,one%20unit%20in%20its%20temperature.">specific heat capacity</a>' than land, meaning it we would need to add more thermal energy to increase its temperature by one degree relative to the same mass of land.{/ref} Overall, global average temperatures over land have increased around twice as much as the ocean. Compared to the 1951 – 1980 average, temperatures over land increased by 1.32 ± 0.04 °C. Whereas, the ocean surface temperature (excluding areas of sea ice) increased by only 0.59 ± 0.06 °C.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Since the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass, this also means that the change in average temperature north of the equator has been higher than in the south.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Secondly, from the map shown, we see that in some regions the temperature change has been much more extreme. At very high latitudes – especially near the Poles – warming has been upwards of 3°C, and in some cases exceeding 5°C. These are, unfortunately, often the regions that could experience the largest impacts such as sea ice, permafrost, and glacial melt.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Monitoring the average global temperature change is important, but we should also be aware of how differently this warming is distributed across the world. In some regions, warming is much more extreme.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>How are greenhouse gas emissions and concentrations changing?</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3>Atmospheric concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> continue to rise</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/climate-change?facet=none&amp;country=~OWID_WRL&amp;Metric=CO%E2%82%82+concentrations&amp;Long-run+series%3F=true&amp;hideControls=true" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>To slow down – with the eventual aim of halting – rising global temperatures, we need to stabilize concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> and other greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere.{ref}IPCC, 2013:&nbsp;<em>Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</em>&nbsp;[Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp.{/ref} This link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations – especially CO<sub>2</sub> – has been true throughout Earth's history.{ref}Lacis, A. A., Schmidt, G. A., Rind, D., &amp; Ruedy, R. A. (2010). <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6002/356">Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth’s temperature</a>.&nbsp;<em>Science</em>,&nbsp;<em>330</em>(6002), 356-359.{/ref} It's important to note that there is a 'lag' between atmospheric concentrations and final temperature rise – this means that when we do finally manage to stabilize atmospheric concentrations, temperatures will continue to slowly rise for years to decades.{ref}Mitchell, J. F. B., Johns, T. C., Ingram, W. J., &amp; Lowe, J. A. (2000). <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/1999GL011213">The effect of stabilising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on global and regional climate change</a>.&nbsp;<em>Geophysical Research Letters</em>,&nbsp;<em>27</em>(18), 2977-2980.{/ref}<sup>,</sup>{ref}Samset, B.H., Fuglestvedt, J.S. &amp; Lund, M.T. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17001-1">Delayed emergence of a global temperature response after emission mitigation</a>.&nbsp;<em>Nature Communications,</em>&nbsp;<strong>11,&nbsp;</strong>3261 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17001-1.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>But, far from stabilizing concentrations, greenhouse gases continue to accumulate.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the chart here we see global average concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere over the past 800,000 years. Over this period we see consistent fluctuations in CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations; these periods of rising and falling CO<sub>2</sub> coincide with the onset of ice ages (low CO<sub>2</sub>) and interglacials (high CO<sub>2</sub>).{ref}Bernhard Bereiter, Sarah Eggleston, Jochen Schmitt, Christoph Nehrbass-Ahles, Thomas F. Stocker, Hubertus Fischer, Sepp Kipfstuhl and Jerome Chappellaz. 2015. Revision of the EPICA Dome C CO2 record from 800 to 600 kyr before present.&nbsp;<em>Geophysical Research Letters</em>. . doi: 10.1002/2014GL061957.{/ref} These periodic fluctuations are caused by changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun – called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles">Milankovitch cycles</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Over this long period, atmospheric concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> did not exceed 300 parts per million (ppm). This changed with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of human emissions of CO<sub>2</sub> from burning <a href="https://owid.cloud/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a>. We see a rapid rise in global CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations over the past few centuries, and in recent decades in particular. For the first time in over 800,000 years, concentrations did not only rise above 300ppm but are now well over 400ppm.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It's not only the <em>level</em> of change CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere that matters, but also the <em>rate</em> that this has changed. Historical changes in CO2 concentrations tended to occur over centuries or even thousands of years. It took us a matter of decades to achieve even larger changes. This gives species, planetary systems, and ecosystems much less time to adapt.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"Explore data on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/atmospheric-concentrations","mediaId":34411,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/06/global-co-concentration-ppm.svg","mediaAlt":"","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>How have concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide changed over time?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3>Global emissions have not yet peaked</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co-emissions-by-region" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>To stabilize (or even reduce) concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere, the world needs to reach net-zero emissions. This requires large and fast reductions in emissions.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Are we making progress towards this? How far are we from this target?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>At a time when global emissions need to be falling, they are in fact still rising, as the chart here shows. The world has not yet peaked.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"Explore data on CO2 emissions","linkUrl":"ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions","mediaId":34408,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/06/co-emissions-per-capita.svg","mediaAlt":"","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>How have global emissions changed over time? How do annual, per capita, consumption-based, and historical emissions compare across the world?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"Explore data on other greenhouse gas emissions","linkUrl":"ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions","mediaId":34426,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/06/total-ghg-emissions.svg","mediaAlt":"","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas that affects warming. How have total greenhouse gas emissions; methane; and nitrous oxide changed over time?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3>Current climate policies will reduce emissions, but not quickly enough to reach international targets</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:image {"id":18956,"sizeSlug":"large"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2018/04/Greenhouse-gas-emission-scenarios-01-768x530.png" alt="" class="wp-image-18956"/></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>Related charts</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"Emissions reductions needed to stay below 1.5\u003cstrong\u003e°\u003c/strong\u003eC","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-mitigation-15c","mediaId":35388,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/co2-mitigation-15c.svg","mediaAlt":"","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>How quickly would we need to reduce emissions to keep global average temperature rise below 1.5<strong>°</strong>C?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"Emissions reductions needed to stay below 2\u003cstrong\u003e°\u003c/strong\u003eC","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-mitigation-2c","mediaId":34768,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/co2-mitigation-2c.svg","mediaAlt":"","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>How quickly would we need to reduce emissions to keep global average temperature rise below 2<strong>°</strong>C?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Current policies to reduce, or at least slow down growth, in CO<sub>2</sub> and other greenhouse gas emissions will have some impact on reducing future warming.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>As we see in the chart shown here, current implemented climate and energy policies would reduce warming relative to a world with no climate policies in place. This chart maps out future greenhouse gas emissions scenarios under a range of assumptions: if no climate policies were implemented; if current policies continued; if all countries achieved their current future pledges for emissions reductions; and necessary pathways which are compatible with limiting warming to 1.5<strong>°</strong>C or 2<strong>°</strong>C of warming this century.{ref}The underlying data for this chart is sourced from the <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/">Climate Action Tracker</a> – based on policies and pledges as of November 2021.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If countries achieved their current 'Pledges' (also shown on the chart), this would be an even further improvement. In this regard, the world is making some progress.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>But if our aim is to limit warming to "well below 2°C" – as is laid out in the Paris Agreement – we are clearly far off track. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at the&nbsp;Center for International Climate Research&nbsp;(CICERO), mapped out the global emissions reduction scenarios necessary to limit global average warming to 1.5°C and 2°C. Based on the IPCC’s Special Report on 1.5°C and Michael Raupach's work, published in&nbsp;<em>Nature</em>&nbsp;<em>Climate Change</em>, these mitigation curves show that urgent and rapid reductions in emissions would be needed to achieve either target.{ref}Rogelj, J., D. Shindell, K. Jiang, S. Fifita, P. Forster, V. Ginzburg, C. Handa, H. Kheshgi, S. Kobayashi, E. Kriegler, L. Mundaca,R. Séférian, and M.V.Vilariño, 2018:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/SR15_Chapter2_Low_Res.pdf">Mitigation Pathways Compatible with 1.5°C in the Context of Sustainable Development. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty</a>&nbsp;[Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors,<br>J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)]. In Press.{/ref}<sup>,</sup>{ref}Raupach, M. R., Davis, S. J., Peters, G. P., Andrew, R. M., Canadell, J. G., Ciais, P., … &amp; Le Quere, C. (2014). Sharing a quota on cumulative carbon emissions.&nbsp;<em>Nature Climate Change</em>,&nbsp;<em>4</em>(10), 873-879.{/ref}<sup>,</sup>{ref}United Nations Environment Programme (2019). Emissions Gap Report 2019. UNEP, Nairobi.{/ref} And the longer we delay a peak in emissions, the more drastic these reductions would need to be.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We may be making slow progress relative to a world without any climate policies, but we are still far from the rates of progress we'd need to achieve international targets.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3>Which countries have set net-zero emissions targets?</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/net-zero-targets?country=SVN~MCO~ECU~AFG~GMB~PER~BGR~SEN" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/net-zero-target-set?country=SGP~NZL~CHN~GNB~ZWE~MYS~USA~CZE" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Whilst current climate <em>policies</em> fall well short of what's needed to keep temperatures below 1.5<strong>°</strong>C or 2<strong>°</strong>C, countries have set more ambitious <em>targets</em> to reach net-zero emissions.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>These interactive maps show the status of net-zero emissions targets across the world. This is based on the latest data from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit's <a href="https://www.zerotracker.net/">Net Zero Scorecard</a>.{ref}<em>Thomas Hale, Takeshi Kuramochi, John Lang, Brendan Mapes, Steve Smith, Ria Aiyer, Richard Black, Mirte Boot, Peter Chalkley, Frederic Hans, Nick Hay, Angel Hsu, Niklas Höhne, Silke Mooldijk, Tristram Walsh. Net Zero Tracker. Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, Data-Driven EnviroLab, NewClimate Institute, Oxford Net Zero. 2021.</em>{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The target year to reach net zero varies by country – you can see the target year for each country by hovering over it on the map.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Note that the inclusion criteria may vary from country to country. For example, some countries may include international aviation and shipping in their net-zero commitment, while others do not. Or, some may allow for carbon offsets while others will not accept them. You can dig deeper into the specifics of each country's criteria <a href="https://www.zerotracker.net/">here</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>Can we make progress in reducing emissions?</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-emissions-and-gdp?country=~SWE" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>Some countries reduced emissions whilst increasing GDP&nbsp;– even when we take into account outsourced production</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There is a strong link between CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, prosperity, and standards of living. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Therefore, if we're to ask the question: "Have any countries demonstrated that we can make progress in reducing emissions?", they would have to achieve both:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li>High standards of living;</li><li>Low levels of emissions, or at least large reductions in emissions to maintain that standard of living.</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are many countries that meet one criterion: rich countries that have high standards of living, but also high levels of emissions; and poor countries that have low levels of emissions but poor standards of living.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>But, some countries <em>have</em> shown signs of progress. A number of countries have shown in recent years that it is possible to increase GDP whilst also reducing emissions. We see this in the chart which shows the change in GDP and annual CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Both production- and consumption-based CO<sub>2</sub> emissions are shown – consumption-based emissions are corrected for traded goods and services, so we can see whether emissions reductions were<em> only</em> achieved by "offshoring" production to other countries.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A number of countries – such as the USA, UK, France, Spain, Italy, and many others – have managed to reduce emissions (even when we correct for trade) whilst increasing GDP.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>The more important question is "Can we make progress <em>fast enough</em>?"</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>So we can see numerous examples of countries, with high standards of living, which have been successful in reducing emissions. This is a clear signal that it is possible to make progress.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>But the key question here is probably less: "can we make progress?", but rather "can we make progress fast enough?". </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>As we explored earlier in this article, the world is currently far off-track from our 2<strong>°</strong>C target. If this is our definition of "fast enough" then we have little historical evidence to suggest that most, or even some, countries can reduce emissions (whilst maintaining high living standards) at the speed needed to achieve this.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We <em>can</em> make progress, but it's currently too slow. We need a large-scale acceleration of these efforts across the world.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>How do we make progress in reducing emissions?</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-sticky-left"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>To make progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there are two fundamental areas we need to focus on: <strong><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/energy">energy</a> </strong>(this encapsulates electricity, heat, transport, and industrial activities) and <strong>food and agriculture</strong> (which includes agriculture and land use change, since agriculture <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food">dominates global land use</a>). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Below we've listed some of the key actions we need to make progress in each area. At a very basic level they can be summarised by two core concepts: <strong>improving efficiency</strong> (using less energy to produce a given output; and using less land, fertilizer, and other inputs for food production, and reducing food waste); and <strong>transitioning to low-carbon alternatives</strong> (in energy, this means shifting to renewables and nuclear; for food, this means substituting carbon-intensive products for those with a lower carbon footprint).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>How can we decarbonize our energy systems?</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li><strong>Shift towards low-carbon electricity (reduce carbon intensity – carbon per unit energy)</strong><br>– Renewables<br>– Nuclear energy<br>– Shift from coal to gas (which emits less CO<sub>2</sub> per unit of energy) as an interim step<br>→ <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy"><strong>Explore our work</strong></a> on energy.<br>→ <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-fuel"><strong>Explore our data</strong></a> on CO2 emissions by fuel type.<br></li><li>Shift sectors such as transport, towards electricity. Some energy sectors are harder to decarbonize – for example, transport. We, therefore, need to shift these forms towards electricity where we have viable low-carbon technologies.<br>→<strong> <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector">Explore our data</a> </strong>on greenhouse gas emissions by sector.<br></li><li><strong>Develop low-cost low-carbon energy and battery technologies.</strong> To do this quickly, and allow lower-income countries to avoid high-carbon development pathways, low-carbon energy needs to be cost-effective and the default choice.<br></li><li><strong>Improve energy efficiency – energy per unit GDP.</strong><br>→<strong> <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-intensity">Explore our data</a> </strong>on energy intensity.</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>How can we reduce emissions from food production and agriculture?</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li><strong>Reduce meat and dairy consumption, especially in higher-income countries. </strong>Shift dietary patterns towards lower-carbon food products. This includes eating less meat and dairy generally but also substituting high-impact meats (e.g. beef and lamb) for chicken, fish, or eggs. Innovation in meat substitutes could also play a large role here.<br> →<strong><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local" target="_blank"> Read our article</a> </strong>on the carbon footprint of meat and dairy versus alternative foods.<br> →<strong> <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production">Explore our work</a> </strong>on meat and dairy production.<br></li><li><strong>Promote lower-carbon meat and dairy production.</strong> We are not going to cut out meat and dairy products completely any time soon (and doing so is unnecessary – large reductions would be sufficient). This makes the promotion of lower-carbon production methods essential.<br> →<strong><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat" target="_blank"> Read our article</a> </strong>on the large differences in carbon footprint for specific meat and dairy products.<br></li><li><strong>Improve crop yields.</strong> Sustainable intensification of agriculture allows us to grow more food on less land. This could help to prevent deforestation from agricultural expansion, and frees up land for replanting, or giving back to natural ecosystems.<br> →<strong><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields" target="_blank"> Explore our work</a></strong> on crop yields.<br></li><li><strong>Reduce food waste.</strong> Around one-third of food emissions come from food that is lost in supply chains or wasted by consumers. Improving harvesting techniques, refrigeration, transport, and packaging in supply chains; and reducing consumer waste can reduce emissions significantly.<br> → <strong><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://ourworldindata.org/food-waste-emissions" target="_blank">Read our article</a></strong> on GHG emissions from food waste. </li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> 
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                                        "text": " Which sectors contribute most to emissions? Does transport contribute more or less than electricity; how large are agriculture and land use emissions?",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "parseErrors": []
                            },
                            {
                                "type": "text",
                                "value": [
                                    {
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "Carbon and energy efficiency:",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-bold"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "text": " How much energy do we use per unit of GDP? How much carbon do we emit per unit of energy?",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "parseErrors": []
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
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            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "Why do greenhouse gas emissions matter?",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
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            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "Global average temperatures have increased by more than 1\u2103 since pre-industrial times",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 4,
                "parseErrors": []
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                "left": [
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/temperature-anomaly",
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                "right": [
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                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases \u2013 are a primary driver of climate change \u2013 and present one of the world's most pressing challenges.{ref}IPCC, 2013:\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u00a0[Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp.{/ref} This link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations \u2013 especially CO",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "2",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-subscript"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " \u2013 has been true throughout Earth's history.{ref}Lacis, A. A., Schmidt, G. A., Rind, D., & Ruedy, R. A. (2010). ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6002/356",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth\u2019s temperature",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ".\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Science",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ",\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "330",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "(6002), 356-359.{/ref}",
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                            }
                        ],
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                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "To set the scene, let's look at how the planet has warmed. In the chart, we see the global average temperature relative to the average of the period between 1961 and 1990.",
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                            }
                        ],
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                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "The red\u00a0line represents the average annual temperature trend through time, with upper and lower confidence intervals shown in light grey. ",
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                            {
                                "text": "We see that over the last few decades, global temperatures have risen sharply\u00a0\u2014 to approximately 0.7\u2103 higher than our 1961-1990 baseline. When extended\u00a0back to 1850, we see that temperatures then were a further 0.4\u2103 colder than they were in our baseline. Overall, this would amount to an average temperature rise of 1.1\u2103. ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
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                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "Because there are small year-to-year fluctuations in temperature, the specific temperature increase depends on what year we assume to be 'pre-industrial' and the end year we're measuring from. But overall, this temperature rise is in the range of 1 to 1.2\u2103.{ref}In this chart \u2013 using the \"Change region\" button you can also view these changes by hemisphere (North and South), as well as the tropics (defined as 30 degrees above and below the equator). This shows us that the temperature increase in the North Hemisphere is higher, at closer to 1.4\u2103 since 1850, and less in the Southern Hemisphere (closer to 0.8\u2103). Evidence suggests that this distribution is strongly related to ocean circulation patterns (notably the North Atlantic Oscillation) which have resulted in greater warming in the northern hemisphere.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "Delworth, T. L., Zeng, F., Vecchi, G. A., Yang, X., Zhang, L., & Zhang, R. (2016). The North Atlantic Oscillation as a driver of rapid climate change in the Northern Hemisphere.\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Nature Geoscience",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ",\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "9",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "(7), 509-512. Available ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2738",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "online",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ".{/ref}",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
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                        "text": [
                            {
                                "text": "Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the main driver of this warming",
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                            }
                        ],
                        "type": "heading",
                        "level": 5,
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                        "type": "text",
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                            {
                                "text": "How much of the warming since 1850 can be attributed to human emissions? Almost all of it. The ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " (IPCC) states clearly in its AR5 assessment report{ref}IPCC, 2014:\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "url": "https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/",
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-link"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u00a0[Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151.{/ref}:",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
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                        "text": [
                            {
                                "type": "text",
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                                        "text": "\"Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have increased since the pre-industrial era, driven largely by economic and population growth, and are now higher than ever. This has led to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide that are unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years. ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "Their effects, together with those of other anthropogenic drivers, have been detected throughout the climate system and are extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-bold"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "text": "\"",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                        "type": "blockquote",
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                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
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                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "Aerosols have played a slight cooling role in global climate, and natural variability has played a very minor role. ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "This article",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " from the ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Carbon Brief",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ", with interactive graphics showing the relative contributions of different forcings on the climate, explains this very well.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
                    },
                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "A changing climate has a range of potential ecological, physical, and health impacts, including extreme weather events (such as floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves); sea-level rise; altered crop growth; and disrupted water systems. The most extensive source of analysis on the potential impacts of climatic change can be found in the ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "5th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "(IPCC) report.{ref}2014: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1132 pp. Available ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "online",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ".{/ref}",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
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                ],
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                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "In some regions, warming has \u2013 and will continue to be \u2013 much greater than the global average",
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                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 4,
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                "left": [
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                        "alt": "",
                        "size": "wide",
                        "type": "image",
                        "caption": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Local temperatures in 2019 relative to the average temperature in 1951-1980.{ref}Berkeley Earth. Global Temperature Report for 2019. Available at: ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "url": "http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/",
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-link"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "text": ".{/ref}",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
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                        ],
                        "filename": "berkeley-temp-anomaly-map.png",
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                "right": [
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                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "When we think about the problem of global warming, a temperature rise of 1\u2103 can seem small and insignificant. ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
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                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "Not only is it true that 1\u2103 of rapid warming itself ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "can",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " have significant impacts on climate and natural systems, but also that this 1\u2103 figure masks the large variations in warming across the world. ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
                    },
                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "In the map shown \u2013 taken from the ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Berkeley Earth",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " global temperature report \u2013 we see the global distribution of temperature changes in 2019 relative to the period 1951 \u2013 1980.{ref}Berkeley Earth. Global Temperature Report for 2019. Available at: ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ".{/ref} This period from 1951 to 1980 is similar to the period global average time series shown in the section above.",
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                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
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                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "There are a couple of key points that stand out.",
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                        "type": "text",
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                            {
                                "text": "Firstly, the global average temperature rise is usually given as the combined temperature change across both land and the sea surface. But it's important to note that land areas change temperature, both warming and cooling much more than oceanic areas.{ref}This is because water has a higher '",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_heat_capacity#:~:text=The%20specific%20heat%20capacity%20of,one%20unit%20in%20its%20temperature.",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "specific heat capacity",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "' than land, meaning it we would need to add more thermal energy to increase its temperature by one degree relative to the same mass of land.{/ref} Overall, global average temperatures over land have increased around twice as much as the ocean. Compared to the 1951 \u2013 1980 average, temperatures over land increased by 1.32 \u00b1 0.04 \u00b0C. Whereas, the ocean surface temperature (excluding areas of sea ice) increased by only 0.59 \u00b1 0.06 \u00b0C.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "Since the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass, this also means that the change in average temperature north of the equator has been higher than in the south.",
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                        "type": "text",
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                            {
                                "text": "Secondly, from the map shown, we see that in some regions the temperature change has been much more extreme. At very high latitudes \u2013 especially near the Poles \u2013 warming has been upwards of 3\u00b0C, and in some cases exceeding 5\u00b0C. These are, unfortunately, often the regions that could experience the largest impacts such as sea ice, permafrost, and glacial melt.",
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                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "Monitoring the average global temperature change is important, but we should also be aware of how differently this warming is distributed across the world. In some regions, warming is much more extreme.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "How are greenhouse gas emissions and concentrations changing?",
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                "level": 2,
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            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "Atmospheric concentrations of CO",
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                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "2",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                        "spanType": "span-subscript"
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                    {
                        "text": " continue to rise",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                "type": "heading",
                "level": 3,
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                "left": [
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/climate-change?facet=none&country=~OWID_WRL&Metric=CO%E2%82%82+concentrations&Long-run+series%3F=true&hideControls=true",
                        "type": "chart",
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                "right": [
                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "To slow down \u2013 with the eventual aim of halting \u2013 rising global temperatures, we need to stabilize concentrations of CO",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "2",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-subscript"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " and other greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere.{ref}IPCC, 2013:\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u00a0[Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp.{/ref} This link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations \u2013 especially CO",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "2",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-subscript"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " \u2013 has been true throughout Earth's history.{ref}Lacis, A. A., Schmidt, G. A., Rind, D., & Ruedy, R. A. (2010). ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6002/356",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth\u2019s temperature",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ".\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Science",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ",\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "330",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "(6002), 356-359.{/ref} It's important to note that there is a 'lag' between atmospheric concentrations and final temperature rise \u2013 this means that when we do finally manage to stabilize atmospheric concentrations, temperatures will continue to slowly rise for years to decades.{ref}Mitchell, J. F. B., Johns, T. C., Ingram, W. J., & Lowe, J. A. (2000). ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/1999GL011213",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "The effect of stabilising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on global and regional climate change",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ".\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Geophysical Research Letters",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": ",\u00a0",
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                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "27",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": "(18), 2977-2980.{/ref}",
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                            },
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                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": ",",
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                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": "{ref}Samset, B.H., Fuglestvedt, J.S. & Lund, M.T. ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17001-1",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Delayed emergence of a global temperature response after emission mitigation",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ".\u00a0",
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                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Nature Communications,",
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                                    }
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                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "11,\u00a0",
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": "3261 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17001-1.{/ref}",
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                        "value": [
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                                "text": "But, far from stabilizing concentrations, greenhouse gases continue to accumulate.",
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                                "text": "In the chart here we see global average concentrations of CO",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": " in the atmosphere over the past 800,000 years. Over this period we see consistent fluctuations in CO",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": " concentrations; these periods of rising and falling CO",
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": " coincide with the onset of ice ages (low CO",
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                                "text": ") and interglacials (high CO",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": ").{ref}Bernhard Bereiter, Sarah Eggleston, Jochen Schmitt, Christoph Nehrbass-Ahles, Thomas F. Stocker, Hubertus Fischer, Sepp Kipfstuhl and Jerome Chappellaz. 2015. Revision of the EPICA Dome C CO2 record from 800 to 600\u2009kyr before present.\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Geophysical Research Letters",
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                            {
                                "text": ". . doi: 10.1002/2014GL061957.{/ref} These periodic fluctuations are caused by changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun \u2013 called ",
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                            },
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                                "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles",
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "Milankovitch cycles",
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                                "spanType": "span-link"
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                                "text": ".",
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                                "text": "Over this long period, atmospheric concentrations of  CO",
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": " did not exceed 300 parts per million (ppm). This changed with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of human emissions of CO",
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                            {
                                "text": " from burning ",
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                                "url": "https://owid.cloud/fossil-fuels",
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                                        "text": "fossil fuels",
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                                "text": ". We see a rapid rise in global CO",
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": " concentrations over the past few centuries, and in recent decades in particular. For the first time in over 800,000 years, concentrations did not only rise above 300ppm but are now well over 400ppm.",
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                                "text": " of change CO",
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": " in the atmosphere that matters, but also the ",
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                                        "text": "rate",
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                                "text": " that this has changed. Historical changes in CO2 concentrations tended to occur over centuries or even thousands of years. It took us a matter of decades to achieve even larger changes. This gives species, planetary systems, and ecosystems much less time to adapt.",
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                        "text": "Global emissions have not yet peaked",
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                                "text": "To stabilize (or even reduce) concentrations of CO",
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                                "text": " in the atmosphere, the world needs to reach net-zero emissions. This requires large and fast reductions in emissions.",
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                                "text": "Are we making progress towards this? How far are we from this target?",
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                                "text": "At a time when global emissions need to be falling, they are in fact still rising, as the chart here shows. The world has not yet peaked.",
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                        "url": "ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions",
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                        "url": "ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions",
                        "type": "prominent-link",
                        "title": "Explore data on other greenhouse gas emissions",
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                        "text": "Current climate policies will reduce emissions, but not quickly enough to reach international targets",
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                                "text": "Related charts",
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                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-mitigation-15c",
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                        "title": "Emissions reductions needed to stay below 1.5<strong>\u00b0</strong>C",
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                                "text": "Current policies to reduce, or at least slow down growth, in CO",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": " and other greenhouse gas emissions will have some impact on reducing future warming.",
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                                "text": "As we see in the chart shown here, current implemented climate and energy policies would reduce warming relative to a world with no climate policies in place. This chart maps out future greenhouse gas emissions scenarios under a range of assumptions: if no climate policies were implemented; if current policies continued; if all countries achieved their current future pledges for emissions reductions; and necessary pathways which are compatible with limiting warming to 1.5",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                            {
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "\u00b0",
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                            {
                                "text": "C or 2",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                            {
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "\u00b0",
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                            {
                                "text": "C of warming this century.{ref}The underlying data for this chart is sourced from the ",
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                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/",
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "Climate Action Tracker",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                "spanType": "span-link"
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                            {
                                "text": " \u2013 based on policies and pledges as of November 2021.{/ref}",
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                                "text": "If countries achieved their current 'Pledges' (also shown on the chart), this would be an even further improvement. In this regard, the world is making some progress.",
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                        "type": "text",
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                                "text": "But if our aim is to limit warming to \"well below 2\u00b0C\" \u2013 as is laid out in the Paris Agreement \u2013 we are clearly far off track. ",
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                                "text": "Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at the\u00a0Center for International Climate Research\u00a0(CICERO), mapped out the global emissions reduction scenarios necessary to limit global average warming to 1.5\u00b0C and 2\u00b0C. Based on the IPCC\u2019s Special Report on 1.5\u00b0C and Michael Raupach's work, published in\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Nature",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Climate Change",
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                                    }
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": ", these mitigation curves show that urgent and rapid reductions in emissions would be needed to achieve either target.{ref}Rogelj, J., D. Shindell, K. Jiang, S. Fifita, P. Forster, V. Ginzburg, C. Handa, H. Kheshgi, S. Kobayashi, E. Kriegler, L. Mundaca,R. S\u00e9f\u00e9rian, and M.V.Vilari\u00f1o, 2018:\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/SR15_Chapter2_Low_Res.pdf",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Mitigation Pathways Compatible with 1.5\u00b0C in the Context of Sustainable Development. In: Global Warming of 1.5\u00b0C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u00a0[Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. P\u00f6rtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. P\u00e9an, R. Pidcock, S. Connors,",
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                                "spanType": "span-newline"
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                            {
                                "text": "J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)]. In Press.{/ref}",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": ",",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": "{ref}Raupach, M. R., Davis, S. J., Peters, G. P., Andrew, R. M., Canadell, J. G., Ciais, P., \u2026 & Le Quere, C. (2014). Sharing a quota on cumulative carbon emissions.\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Nature Climate Change",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ",\u00a0",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "4",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "(10), 873-879.{/ref}",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": ",",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                "spanType": "span-superscript"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "{ref}United Nations Environment Programme (2019). Emissions Gap Report 2019. UNEP, Nairobi.{/ref} And the longer we delay a peak in emissions, the more drastic these reductions would need to be.",
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                                "text": "We may be making slow progress relative to a world without any climate policies, but we are still far from the rates of progress we'd need to achieve international targets.",
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                "text": [
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                        "text": "Which countries have set net-zero emissions targets?",
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                                "text": "Whilst current climate ",
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                            {
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                                        "text": "policies",
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                                "text": " fall well short of what's needed to keep temperatures below 1.5",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "\u00b0",
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                            {
                                "text": "C or 2",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "\u00b0",
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                                "text": "C, countries have set more ambitious ",
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                                        "text": "targets",
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                                "text": " to reach net-zero emissions.",
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                                "text": "These interactive maps show the status of net-zero emissions targets across the world. This is based on the latest data from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit's ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://www.zerotracker.net/",
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                                        "text": "Net Zero Scorecard",
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                                "text": ".{ref}",
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                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Thomas Hale, Takeshi Kuramochi, John Lang, Brendan Mapes, Steve Smith, Ria Aiyer, Richard Black, Mirte Boot, Peter Chalkley, Frederic Hans, Nick Hay, Angel Hsu, Niklas H\u00f6hne, Silke Mooldijk, Tristram Walsh. Net Zero Tracker. Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, Data-Driven EnviroLab, NewClimate Institute, Oxford Net Zero. 2021.",
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                                "text": "{/ref}",
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                                "text": "The target year to reach net zero varies by country \u2013 you can see the target year for each country by hovering over it on the map.",
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                                "text": "Note that the inclusion criteria may vary from country to country. For example, some countries may include international aviation and shipping in their net-zero commitment, while others do not. Or, some may allow for carbon offsets while others will not accept them. You can dig deeper into the specifics of each country's criteria ",
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                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://www.zerotracker.net/",
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "here",
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                            {
                                "text": ".",
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                "text": [
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                        "text": "Can we make progress in reducing emissions?",
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                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-emissions-and-gdp?country=~SWE",
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                        "text": [
                            {
                                "text": "Some countries reduced emissions whilst increasing GDP\u00a0\u2013 even when we take into account outsourced production",
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                                "text": "There is a strong link between CO",
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                                        "text": "2",
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                            {
                                "text": " emissions, prosperity, and standards of living. ",
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                                "text": "Therefore, if we're to ask the question: \"Have any countries demonstrated that we can make progress in reducing emissions?\", they would have to achieve both:",
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                                        "text": "High standards of living;",
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                                        "text": "Low levels of emissions, or at least large reductions in emissions to maintain that standard of living.",
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                                "text": "There are many countries that meet one criterion: rich countries that have high standards of living, but also high levels of emissions; and poor countries that have low levels of emissions but poor standards of living.",
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                                "text": "But, some countries ",
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                                        "text": "have",
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                                "text": " shown signs of progress. A number of countries have shown in recent years that it is possible to increase GDP whilst also reducing emissions. We see this in the chart which shows the change in GDP and annual CO",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": " emissions. Both production- and consumption-based CO",
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                                        "text": "2",
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                                "text": " emissions are shown \u2013 consumption-based emissions are corrected for traded goods and services, so we can see whether emissions reductions were",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": " only",
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                                "text": " achieved by \"offshoring\" production to other countries.",
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                                "text": "A number of countries \u2013 such as the USA, UK, France, Spain, Italy, and many others \u2013 have managed to reduce emissions (even when we correct for trade) whilst increasing GDP.",
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                                "text": "The more important question is \"Can we make progress ",
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                                        "text": "fast enough",
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                                "text": "?\"",
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                                "text": "So we can see numerous examples of countries, with high standards of living, which have been successful in reducing emissions. This is a clear signal that it is possible to make progress.",
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                                "text": "But the key question here is probably less: \"can we make progress?\", but rather \"can we make progress fast enough?\". ",
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                                "text": "As we explored earlier in this article, the world is currently far off-track from our 2",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "\u00b0",
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                                "text": "C target. If this is our definition of \"fast enough\" then we have little historical evidence to suggest that most, or even some, countries can reduce emissions (whilst maintaining high living standards) at the speed needed to achieve this.",
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                                "text": "We ",
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                                        "text": "can",
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                            {
                                "text": " make progress, but it's currently too slow. We need a large-scale acceleration of these efforts across the world.",
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                "text": [
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                        "text": "How do we make progress in reducing emissions?",
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                        "text": "To make progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there are two fundamental areas we need to focus on: ",
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                                "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/energy",
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                                        "text": "energy",
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                                "text": " ",
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                        "text": "(this encapsulates electricity, heat, transport, and industrial activities) and ",
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                        "children": [
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                                "text": "food and agriculture",
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                        "text": " (which includes agriculture and land use change, since agriculture ",
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                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food",
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                                "text": "dominates global land use",
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                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
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                        "text": "). ",
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                        "text": "Below we've listed some of the key actions we need to make progress in each area. At a very basic level they can be summarised by two core concepts: ",
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                        "children": [
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                                "text": "improving efficiency",
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                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-bold"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " (using less energy to produce a given output; and using less land, fertilizer, and other inputs for food production, and reducing food waste); and ",
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                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
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                                "text": "transitioning to low-carbon alternatives",
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                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-bold"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " (in energy, this means shifting to renewables and nuclear; for food, this means substituting carbon-intensive products for those with a lower carbon footprint).",
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                "text": [
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                        "text": "How can we decarbonize our energy systems?",
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                                        "text": "Shift towards low-carbon electricity (reduce carbon intensity \u2013 carbon per unit energy)",
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                                ],
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                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
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                            {
                                "text": "\u2013 Renewables",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u2013 Nuclear energy",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u2013 Shift from coal to gas (which emits less CO",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "2",
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                            {
                                "text": " per unit of energy) as an interim step",
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                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u2192 ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "Explore our work",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-bold"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
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                            {
                                "text": " on energy.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u2192 ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-fuel",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "Explore our data",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-bold"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " on CO2 emissions by fuel type.",
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                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
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                        ],
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                    {
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                            {
                                "text": "Shift sectors such as transport, towards electricity. Some energy sectors are harder to decarbonize \u2013 for example, transport. We, therefore, need to shift these forms towards electricity where we have viable low-carbon technologies.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u2192",
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                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": " ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector",
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "Explore our data",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-link"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "text": " ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": "on greenhouse gas emissions by sector.",
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                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
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                        ],
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "Develop low-cost low-carbon energy and battery technologies.",
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                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " To do this quickly, and allow lower-income countries to avoid high-carbon development pathways, low-carbon energy needs to be cost-effective and the default choice.",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "Improve energy efficiency \u2013 energy per unit GDP.",
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                                ],
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                            {
                                "text": "\u2192",
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                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": " ",
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                                    },
                                    {
                                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-intensity",
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "Explore our data",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-link"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "text": " ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": "on energy intensity.",
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                "text": [
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                        "text": "How can we reduce emissions from food production and agriculture?",
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                ],
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                "level": 4,
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                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Reduce meat and dairy consumption, especially in higher-income countries. ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "Shift dietary patterns towards lower-carbon food products. This includes eating less meat and dairy generally but also substituting high-impact meats (e.g. beef and lamb) for chicken, fish, or eggs. Innovation in meat substitutes could also play a large role here.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "         \u2192",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local",
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": " Read our article",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-link"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "text": " ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                ],
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                            {
                                "text": "on the carbon footprint of meat and dairy versus alternative foods.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "         \u2192",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": " ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                    {
                                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production",
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "Explore our work",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-link"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "text": " ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": "on meat and dairy production.",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "Promote lower-carbon meat and dairy production.",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " We are not going to cut out meat and dairy products completely any time soon (and doing so is unnecessary \u2013 large reductions would be sufficient). This makes the promotion of lower-carbon production methods essential.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "          \u2192",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat",
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": " Read our article",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-link"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "text": " ",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
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                            {
                                "text": "on the large differences in carbon footprint for specific meat and dairy products.",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "Improve crop yields.",
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                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " Sustainable intensification of agriculture allows us to grow more food on less land. This could help to prevent deforestation from agricultural expansion, and frees up land for replanting, or giving back to natural ecosystems.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "          \u2192",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields",
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": " Explore our work",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-link"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " on crop yields.",
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                        ],
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                    {
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                        "value": [
                            {
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "Reduce food waste.",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " Around one-third of food emissions come from food that is lost in supply chains or wasted by consumers. Improving harvesting techniques, refrigeration, transport, and packaging in supply chains; and reducing consumer waste can reduce emissions significantly.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "spanType": "span-newline"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": "          \u2192 ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/food-waste-emissions",
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "Read our article",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-link"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " on GHG emissions from food waste. ",
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                ],
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        ],
        "type": "article",
        "title": "CO\u2082 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions",
        "authors": [
            "Hannah Ritchie",
            "Max Roser",
            "Pablo Rosado"
        ],
        "excerpt": "Who is emitting greenhouse gases? Which countries and which sectors? And what needs to happen to reduce emissions?",
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[
    "Hannah Ritchie",
    "Max Roser",
    "Pablo Rosado"
]
 Who is emitting greenhouse gases? Which countries and which sectors? And what needs to happen to reduce emissions? 2020-03-16 21:20:31 2023-10-16 19:13:41 https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/CO2-Landing-page.png 
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 This article was first published in May 2017; last revised in August 2020. You can **[download](https://github.com/owid/co2-data)** our complete _Our World in Data_ CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions database. ### **CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Country Profiles** How are emissions changing in each country? Is your country making progress on reducing emissions? We built 207 country profiles which allow you to explore **the statistics for every country in the world**. Each profile includes **interactive visualizations**, **explanations** of the presented metrics, and the details on the **sources of the data**. See emissions in your country and how it compares to others: ##### **Our 12 most visited country profiles** * [United States](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/united-states?country=~USA) * [United Kingdom](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/united-kingdom?country=~GBR) * [China](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china?country=~CHN) * [India](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/india?country=~IND) * [Brazil](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/brazil?country=~BRA) * [South Africa](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/south-africa?country=~ZAF) * [Germany](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/germany?country=~DEU) * [Spain](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/spain?country=~ESP) * [France](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/france?country=~FRA) * [Canada](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/canada?country=~CAN) * [Australia](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/australia?country=~AUS) * [Sweden](https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/sweden?country=~SWE) #### Every profile includes five sections 0. **CO**2******emissions:** How much does a country emit each year? What is the average emissions per person? How much has it emitted over time? How do emissions compare when we correct for trade? 1. **Coal, oil, gas, cement:** How much CO2 comes from coal, oil, gas, flaring or cement production? 2. **Other greenhouse gases:** How much total greenhouse gases does each country emit? How much methane, and nitrous oxide is emitted? 3. **Emissions by sector:** Which sectors contribute most to emissions? Does transport contribute more or less than electricity; how large are agriculture and land use emissions? 4. **Carbon and energy efficiency:** How much energy do we use per unit of GDP? How much carbon do we emit per unit of energy? ## Why do greenhouse gas emissions matter? #### Global average temperatures have increased by more than 1℃ since pre-industrial times <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/temperature-anomaly"/> Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases – are a primary driver of climate change – and present one of the world's most pressing challenges.{ref}IPCC, 2013: _Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change_ [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp.{/ref} This link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations – especially CO2 – has been true throughout Earth's history.{ref}Lacis, A. A., Schmidt, G. A., Rind, D., & Ruedy, R. A. (2010). [Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth’s temperature](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6002/356). _Science_, _330_(6002), 356-359.{/ref} To set the scene, let's look at how the planet has warmed. In the chart, we see the global average temperature relative to the average of the period between 1961 and 1990. The red line represents the average annual temperature trend through time, with upper and lower confidence intervals shown in light grey. We see that over the last few decades, global temperatures have risen sharply — to approximately 0.7℃ higher than our 1961-1990 baseline. When extended back to 1850, we see that temperatures then were a further 0.4℃ colder than they were in our baseline. Overall, this would amount to an average temperature rise of 1.1℃. Because there are small year-to-year fluctuations in temperature, the specific temperature increase depends on what year we assume to be 'pre-industrial' and the end year we're measuring from. But overall, this temperature rise is in the range of 1 to 1.2℃.{ref}In this chart – using the "Change region" button you can also view these changes by hemisphere (North and South), as well as the tropics (defined as 30 degrees above and below the equator). This shows us that the temperature increase in the North Hemisphere is higher, at closer to 1.4℃ since 1850, and less in the Southern Hemisphere (closer to 0.8℃). Evidence suggests that this distribution is strongly related to ocean circulation patterns (notably the North Atlantic Oscillation) which have resulted in greater warming in the northern hemisphere. Delworth, T. L., Zeng, F., Vecchi, G. A., Yang, X., Zhang, L., & Zhang, R. (2016). The North Atlantic Oscillation as a driver of rapid climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. _Nature Geoscience_, _9_(7), 509-512. Available [online](https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2738).{/ref} ##### Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the main driver of this warming How much of the warming since 1850 can be attributed to human emissions? Almost all of it. The _Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change_ (IPCC) states clearly in its AR5 assessment report{ref}IPCC, 2014: _[Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/)_ [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151.{/ref}: -- undefined Aerosols have played a slight cooling role in global climate, and natural variability has played a very minor role. [This article](https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans) from the _Carbon Brief_, with interactive graphics showing the relative contributions of different forcings on the climate, explains this very well. A changing climate has a range of potential ecological, physical, and health impacts, including extreme weather events (such as floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves); sea-level rise; altered crop growth; and disrupted water systems. The most extensive source of analysis on the potential impacts of climatic change can be found in the _5th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change _(IPCC) report.{ref}2014: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1132 pp. Available [online](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/).{/ref} #### In some regions, warming has – and will continue to be – much greater than the global average <Image filename="berkeley-temp-anomaly-map.png" alt=""/> When we think about the problem of global warming, a temperature rise of 1℃ can seem small and insignificant. Not only is it true that 1℃ of rapid warming itself _can_ have significant impacts on climate and natural systems, but also that this 1℃ figure masks the large variations in warming across the world. In the map shown – taken from the _Berkeley Earth_ global temperature report – we see the global distribution of temperature changes in 2019 relative to the period 1951 – 1980.{ref}Berkeley Earth. Global Temperature Report for 2019. Available at: [http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/](http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/).{/ref} This period from 1951 to 1980 is similar to the period global average time series shown in the section above. There are a couple of key points that stand out. Firstly, the global average temperature rise is usually given as the combined temperature change across both land and the sea surface. But it's important to note that land areas change temperature, both warming and cooling much more than oceanic areas.{ref}This is because water has a higher '[specific heat capacity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_heat_capacity#:~:text=The%20specific%20heat%20capacity%20of,one%20unit%20in%20its%20temperature.)' than land, meaning it we would need to add more thermal energy to increase its temperature by one degree relative to the same mass of land.{/ref} Overall, global average temperatures over land have increased around twice as much as the ocean. Compared to the 1951 – 1980 average, temperatures over land increased by 1.32 ± 0.04 °C. Whereas, the ocean surface temperature (excluding areas of sea ice) increased by only 0.59 ± 0.06 °C. Since the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass, this also means that the change in average temperature north of the equator has been higher than in the south. Secondly, from the map shown, we see that in some regions the temperature change has been much more extreme. At very high latitudes – especially near the Poles – warming has been upwards of 3°C, and in some cases exceeding 5°C. These are, unfortunately, often the regions that could experience the largest impacts such as sea ice, permafrost, and glacial melt. Monitoring the average global temperature change is important, but we should also be aware of how differently this warming is distributed across the world. In some regions, warming is much more extreme. ## How are greenhouse gas emissions and concentrations changing? ### Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 continue to rise <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/climate-change?facet=none&country=~OWID_WRL&Metric=CO%E2%82%82+concentrations&Long-run+series%3F=true&hideControls=true"/> To slow down – with the eventual aim of halting – rising global temperatures, we need to stabilize concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere.{ref}IPCC, 2013: _Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change_ [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp.{/ref} This link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations – especially CO2 – has been true throughout Earth's history.{ref}Lacis, A. A., Schmidt, G. A., Rind, D., & Ruedy, R. A. (2010). [Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth’s temperature](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6002/356). _Science_, _330_(6002), 356-359.{/ref} It's important to note that there is a 'lag' between atmospheric concentrations and final temperature rise – this means that when we do finally manage to stabilize atmospheric concentrations, temperatures will continue to slowly rise for years to decades.{ref}Mitchell, J. F. B., Johns, T. C., Ingram, W. J., & Lowe, J. A. (2000). [The effect of stabilising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on global and regional climate change](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/1999GL011213). _Geophysical Research Letters_, _27_(18), 2977-2980.{/ref},{ref}Samset, B.H., Fuglestvedt, J.S. & Lund, M.T. [Delayed emergence of a global temperature response after emission mitigation](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17001-1). _Nature Communications,_**11, **3261 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17001-1.{/ref} But, far from stabilizing concentrations, greenhouse gases continue to accumulate. In the chart here we see global average concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere over the past 800,000 years. Over this period we see consistent fluctuations in CO2 concentrations; these periods of rising and falling CO2 coincide with the onset of ice ages (low CO2) and interglacials (high CO2).{ref}Bernhard Bereiter, Sarah Eggleston, Jochen Schmitt, Christoph Nehrbass-Ahles, Thomas F. Stocker, Hubertus Fischer, Sepp Kipfstuhl and Jerome Chappellaz. 2015. Revision of the EPICA Dome C CO2 record from 800 to 600 kyr before present. _Geophysical Research Letters_. . doi: 10.1002/2014GL061957.{/ref} These periodic fluctuations are caused by changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun – called [Milankovitch cycles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles). Over this long period, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 did not exceed 300 parts per million (ppm). This changed with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of human emissions of CO2 from burning [fossil fuels](https://owid.cloud/fossil-fuels). We see a rapid rise in global CO2 concentrations over the past few centuries, and in recent decades in particular. For the first time in over 800,000 years, concentrations did not only rise above 300ppm but are now well over 400ppm. It's not only the _level_ of change CO2 in the atmosphere that matters, but also the _rate_ that this has changed. Historical changes in CO2 concentrations tended to occur over centuries or even thousands of years. It took us a matter of decades to achieve even larger changes. This gives species, planetary systems, and ecosystems much less time to adapt. ### Explore data on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases How have concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide changed over time? https://ourworldindata.org/atmospheric-concentrations ### Global emissions have not yet peaked <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co-emissions-by-region"/> To stabilize (or even reduce) concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, the world needs to reach net-zero emissions. This requires large and fast reductions in emissions. Are we making progress towards this? How far are we from this target? At a time when global emissions need to be falling, they are in fact still rising, as the chart here shows. The world has not yet peaked. ### Explore data on CO2 emissions How have global emissions changed over time? How do annual, per capita, consumption-based, and historical emissions compare across the world? ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions ### Explore data on other greenhouse gas emissions CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas that affects warming. How have total greenhouse gas emissions; methane; and nitrous oxide changed over time? ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions ### Current climate policies will reduce emissions, but not quickly enough to reach international targets <Image filename="Greenhouse-gas-emission-scenarios-01.png" alt=""/> ##### Related charts ### Emissions reductions needed to stay below 1.5<strong>°</strong>C How quickly would we need to reduce emissions to keep global average temperature rise below 1.5°C? https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-mitigation-15c ### Emissions reductions needed to stay below 2<strong>°</strong>C How quickly would we need to reduce emissions to keep global average temperature rise below 2°C? https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-mitigation-2c Current policies to reduce, or at least slow down growth, in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions will have some impact on reducing future warming. As we see in the chart shown here, current implemented climate and energy policies would reduce warming relative to a world with no climate policies in place. This chart maps out future greenhouse gas emissions scenarios under a range of assumptions: if no climate policies were implemented; if current policies continued; if all countries achieved their current future pledges for emissions reductions; and necessary pathways which are compatible with limiting warming to 1.5**°**C or 2**°**C of warming this century.{ref}The underlying data for this chart is sourced from the [Climate Action Tracker](https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/) – based on policies and pledges as of November 2021.{/ref} If countries achieved their current 'Pledges' (also shown on the chart), this would be an even further improvement. In this regard, the world is making some progress. But if our aim is to limit warming to "well below 2°C" – as is laid out in the Paris Agreement – we are clearly far off track. Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at the Center for International Climate Research (CICERO), mapped out the global emissions reduction scenarios necessary to limit global average warming to 1.5°C and 2°C. Based on the IPCC’s Special Report on 1.5°C and Michael Raupach's work, published in _Nature__Climate Change_, these mitigation curves show that urgent and rapid reductions in emissions would be needed to achieve either target.{ref}Rogelj, J., D. Shindell, K. Jiang, S. Fifita, P. Forster, V. Ginzburg, C. Handa, H. Kheshgi, S. Kobayashi, E. Kriegler, L. Mundaca,R. Séférian, and M.V.Vilariño, 2018: [Mitigation Pathways Compatible with 1.5°C in the Context of Sustainable Development. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty](https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/SR15_Chapter2_Low_Res.pdf) [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)]. In Press.{/ref},{ref}Raupach, M. R., Davis, S. J., Peters, G. P., Andrew, R. M., Canadell, J. G., Ciais, P., … & Le Quere, C. (2014). Sharing a quota on cumulative carbon emissions. _Nature Climate Change_, _4_(10), 873-879.{/ref},{ref}United Nations Environment Programme (2019). Emissions Gap Report 2019. UNEP, Nairobi.{/ref} And the longer we delay a peak in emissions, the more drastic these reductions would need to be. We may be making slow progress relative to a world without any climate policies, but we are still far from the rates of progress we'd need to achieve international targets. ### Which countries have set net-zero emissions targets? <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/net-zero-targets?country=SVN~MCO~ECU~AFG~GMB~PER~BGR~SEN"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/net-zero-target-set?country=SGP~NZL~CHN~GNB~ZWE~MYS~USA~CZE"/> Whilst current climate _policies_ fall well short of what's needed to keep temperatures below 1.5**°**C or 2**°**C, countries have set more ambitious _targets_ to reach net-zero emissions. These interactive maps show the status of net-zero emissions targets across the world. This is based on the latest data from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit's [Net Zero Scorecard](https://www.zerotracker.net/).{ref}_Thomas Hale, Takeshi Kuramochi, John Lang, Brendan Mapes, Steve Smith, Ria Aiyer, Richard Black, Mirte Boot, Peter Chalkley, Frederic Hans, Nick Hay, Angel Hsu, Niklas Höhne, Silke Mooldijk, Tristram Walsh. Net Zero Tracker. Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, Data-Driven EnviroLab, NewClimate Institute, Oxford Net Zero. 2021._{/ref} The target year to reach net zero varies by country – you can see the target year for each country by hovering over it on the map. Note that the inclusion criteria may vary from country to country. For example, some countries may include international aviation and shipping in their net-zero commitment, while others do not. Or, some may allow for carbon offsets while others will not accept them. You can dig deeper into the specifics of each country's criteria [here](https://www.zerotracker.net/). ## Can we make progress in reducing emissions? <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-emissions-and-gdp?country=~SWE"/> ##### Some countries reduced emissions whilst increasing GDP – even when we take into account outsourced production There is a strong link between CO2 emissions, prosperity, and standards of living. Therefore, if we're to ask the question: "Have any countries demonstrated that we can make progress in reducing emissions?", they would have to achieve both: 0. High standards of living; 1. Low levels of emissions, or at least large reductions in emissions to maintain that standard of living. There are many countries that meet one criterion: rich countries that have high standards of living, but also high levels of emissions; and poor countries that have low levels of emissions but poor standards of living. But, some countries _have_ shown signs of progress. A number of countries have shown in recent years that it is possible to increase GDP whilst also reducing emissions. We see this in the chart which shows the change in GDP and annual CO2 emissions. Both production- and consumption-based CO2 emissions are shown – consumption-based emissions are corrected for traded goods and services, so we can see whether emissions reductions were_ only_ achieved by "offshoring" production to other countries. A number of countries – such as the USA, UK, France, Spain, Italy, and many others – have managed to reduce emissions (even when we correct for trade) whilst increasing GDP. ##### The more important question is "Can we make progress _fast enough_?" So we can see numerous examples of countries, with high standards of living, which have been successful in reducing emissions. This is a clear signal that it is possible to make progress. But the key question here is probably less: "can we make progress?", but rather "can we make progress fast enough?". As we explored earlier in this article, the world is currently far off-track from our 2**°**C target. If this is our definition of "fast enough" then we have little historical evidence to suggest that most, or even some, countries can reduce emissions (whilst maintaining high living standards) at the speed needed to achieve this. We _can_ make progress, but it's currently too slow. We need a large-scale acceleration of these efforts across the world. ## How do we make progress in reducing emissions? To make progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there are two fundamental areas we need to focus on: **[energy](http://ourworldindata.org/energy) **(this encapsulates electricity, heat, transport, and industrial activities) and **food and agriculture** (which includes agriculture and land use change, since agriculture [dominates global land use](http://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food)). Below we've listed some of the key actions we need to make progress in each area. At a very basic level they can be summarised by two core concepts: **improving efficiency** (using less energy to produce a given output; and using less land, fertilizer, and other inputs for food production, and reducing food waste); and **transitioning to low-carbon alternatives** (in energy, this means shifting to renewables and nuclear; for food, this means substituting carbon-intensive products for those with a lower carbon footprint). #### How can we decarbonize our energy systems? 0. **Shift towards low-carbon electricity (reduce carbon intensity – carbon per unit energy)** – Renewables – Nuclear energy – Shift from coal to gas (which emits less CO2 per unit of energy) as an interim step → [**Explore our work**](https://ourworldindata.org/energy) on energy. → [**Explore our data**](https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-fuel) on CO2 emissions by fuel type. 1. Shift sectors such as transport, towards electricity. Some energy sectors are harder to decarbonize – for example, transport. We, therefore, need to shift these forms towards electricity where we have viable low-carbon technologies. →** [Explore our data](https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector) **on greenhouse gas emissions by sector. 2. **Develop low-cost low-carbon energy and battery technologies.** To do this quickly, and allow lower-income countries to avoid high-carbon development pathways, low-carbon energy needs to be cost-effective and the default choice. 3. **Improve energy efficiency – energy per unit GDP.** →** [Explore our data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-intensity) **on energy intensity. #### How can we reduce emissions from food production and agriculture? 0. **Reduce meat and dairy consumption, especially in higher-income countries. **Shift dietary patterns towards lower-carbon food products. This includes eating less meat and dairy generally but also substituting high-impact meats (e.g. beef and lamb) for chicken, fish, or eggs. Innovation in meat substitutes could also play a large role here. →**[ Read our article](https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local) **on the carbon footprint of meat and dairy versus alternative foods. →** [Explore our work](https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production) **on meat and dairy production. 1. **Promote lower-carbon meat and dairy production.** We are not going to cut out meat and dairy products completely any time soon (and doing so is unnecessary – large reductions would be sufficient). This makes the promotion of lower-carbon production methods essential. →**[ Read our article](https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat) **on the large differences in carbon footprint for specific meat and dairy products. 2. **Improve crop yields.** Sustainable intensification of agriculture allows us to grow more food on less land. This could help to prevent deforestation from agricultural expansion, and frees up land for replanting, or giving back to natural ecosystems. →**[ Explore our work](http://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields)** on crop yields. 3. **Reduce food waste.** Around one-third of food emissions come from food that is lost in supply chains or wasted by consumers. Improving harvesting techniques, refrigeration, transport, and packaging in supply chains; and reducing consumer waste can reduce emissions significantly. → **[Read our article](https://ourworldindata.org/food-waste-emissions)** on GHG emissions from food waste. 
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        "rendered": "\n<div class=\"blog-info\">This article was first published in May 2017; last revised in August 2020.</div>\n\n\n\n<!-- formatting-options subnavId:co2 subnavCurrentId:co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions -->\n\n\n\n<p>You can&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https://github.com/owid/co2-data\">download</a></strong>&nbsp;our complete <em>Our World in Data</em> CO<sub>2</sub> and Greenhouse Gas Emissions database.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"/>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>CO<sub>2</sub> and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Country Profiles</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>How are emissions changing in each country? Is your country making progress on reducing emissions? We built 207 country profiles which allow you to explore <strong>the statistics for every country in the world</strong>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each profile includes <strong>interactive visualizations</strong>, <strong>explanations</strong> of the presented metrics, and the details on the <strong>sources of the data</strong>.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p></p>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>See emissions in your country and how it compares to others:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<div data-project=\"co2\" class=\"wp-block-search-country-profile\"></div>\n\n\n\n<h5><strong>Our 12 most visited country profiles</strong></h5>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e26993d3c wp-block-group\">\n<ul class=\"covid-country-tiles\"><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/united-states?country=~USA\">United States</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/united-kingdom?country=~GBR\">United Kingdom</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china?country=~CHN\">China</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/india?country=~IND\">India</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/brazil?country=~BRA\">Brazil</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/south-africa?country=~ZAF\">South Africa</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/germany?country=~DEU\">Germany</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/spain?country=~ESP\">Spain</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/france?country=~FRA\">France</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/canada?country=~CAN\">Canada</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/australia?country=~AUS\">Australia</a></li><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/sweden?country=~SWE\">Sweden</a></li></ul>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\t<block type=\"help\">\n\t\t<content>\n\n<h4>Every profile includes five sections</h4>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong>CO<strong><sub>2</sub></strong></strong> <strong>emissions:</strong> How much does a country emit each year? What is the average emissions per person? How much has it emitted over time? How do emissions compare when we correct for trade?</li><li><strong>Coal, oil, gas, cement:</strong> How much CO<sub>2</sub> comes from coal, oil, gas, flaring or cement production?</li><li><strong>Other greenhouse gases:</strong> How much total greenhouse gases does each country emit? How much methane, and nitrous oxide is emitted?</li><li><strong>Emissions by sector:</strong> Which sectors contribute most to emissions? Does transport contribute more or less than electricity; how large are agriculture and land use emissions?</li><li><strong>Carbon and energy efficiency:</strong> How much energy do we use per unit of GDP? How much carbon do we emit per unit of energy?</li></ol>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n</content>\n\t</block></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Why do greenhouse gas emissions matter?</h2>\n\n\n\n<h4>Global average temperatures have increased by more than 1\u2103 since pre-industrial times</h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/temperature-anomaly\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases \u2013 are a primary driver of climate change \u2013 and present one of the world&#8217;s most pressing challenges.{ref}IPCC, 2013:&nbsp;<em>Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</em>&nbsp;[Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp.{/ref} This link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations \u2013 especially CO<sub>2</sub> \u2013 has been true throughout Earth&#8217;s history.{ref}Lacis, A. A., Schmidt, G. A., Rind, D., &amp; Ruedy, R. A. (2010). <a href=\"https://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6002/356\">Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth\u2019s temperature</a>.&nbsp;<em>Science</em>,&nbsp;<em>330</em>(6002), 356-359.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To set the scene, let&#8217;s look at how the planet has warmed. In the chart, we see the global average temperature relative to the average of the period between 1961 and 1990.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The red&nbsp;line represents the average annual temperature trend through time, with upper and lower confidence intervals shown in light grey. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>We see that over the last few decades, global temperatures have risen sharply&nbsp;\u2014 to approximately 0.7\u2103 higher than our 1961-1990 baseline. When extended&nbsp;back to 1850, we see that temperatures then were a further 0.4\u2103 colder than they were in our baseline. Overall, this would amount to an average temperature rise of 1.1\u2103. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because there are small year-to-year fluctuations in temperature, the specific temperature increase depends on what year we assume to be &#8216;pre-industrial&#8217; and the end year we&#8217;re measuring from. But overall, this temperature rise is in the range of 1 to 1.2\u2103.{ref}In this chart \u2013 using the &#8220;Change region&#8221; button you can also view these changes by hemisphere (North and South), as well as the tropics (defined as 30 degrees above and below the equator). This shows us that the temperature increase in the North Hemisphere is higher, at closer to 1.4\u2103 since 1850, and less in the Southern Hemisphere (closer to 0.8\u2103). Evidence suggests that this distribution is strongly related to ocean circulation patterns (notably the North Atlantic Oscillation) which have resulted in greater warming in the northern hemisphere.<br><br>Delworth, T. L., Zeng, F., Vecchi, G. A., Yang, X., Zhang, L., &amp; Zhang, R. (2016). The North Atlantic Oscillation as a driver of rapid climate change in the Northern Hemisphere.&nbsp;<em>Nature Geoscience</em>,&nbsp;<em>9</em>(7), 509-512. Available <a href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2738\">online</a>.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<h5>Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the main driver of this warming</h5>\n\n\n\n<p>How much of the warming since 1850 can be attributed to human emissions? Almost all of it. The <em>Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</em> (IPCC) states clearly in its AR5 assessment report{ref}IPCC, 2014:&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/\">Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a></em>&nbsp;[Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151.{/ref}:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>&#8220;Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have increased since the pre-industrial era, driven largely by economic and population growth, and are now higher than ever. This has led to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide that are unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years. <strong>Their effects, together with those of other anthropogenic drivers, have been detected throughout the climate system and are extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.</strong>&#8220;</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Aerosols have played a slight cooling role in global climate, and natural variability has played a very minor role. <a href=\"https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans\">This article</a> from the <em>Carbon Brief</em>, with interactive graphics showing the relative contributions of different forcings on the climate, explains this very well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A changing climate has a range of potential ecological, physical, and health impacts, including extreme weather events (such as floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves); sea-level rise; altered crop growth; and disrupted water systems. The most extensive source of analysis on the potential impacts of climatic change can be found in the <em>5th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change </em>(IPCC) report.{ref}2014: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<br> [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1132 pp. Available <a href=\"https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/\">online</a>.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h4>In some regions, warming has \u2013 and will continue to be \u2013 much greater than the global average</h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"446\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/berkeley-temp-anomaly-map-800x446.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35010\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/berkeley-temp-anomaly-map-800x446.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/berkeley-temp-anomaly-map-400x223.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/berkeley-temp-anomaly-map-150x84.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/berkeley-temp-anomaly-map-768x429.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/berkeley-temp-anomaly-map.png 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" /><figcaption><em>Local temperatures in 2019 relative to the average temperature in 1951-1980.{ref}Berkeley Earth. Global Temperature Report for 2019. Available at: <a href=\"http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/\">http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/</a>.{/ref}</em></figcaption></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>When we think about the problem of global warming, a temperature rise of 1\u2103 can seem small and insignificant. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only is it true that 1\u2103 of rapid warming itself <em>can</em> have significant impacts on climate and natural systems, but also that this 1\u2103 figure masks the large variations in warming across the world. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the map shown \u2013 taken from the <em>Berkeley Earth</em> global temperature report \u2013 we see the global distribution of temperature changes in 2019 relative to the period 1951 \u2013 1980.{ref}Berkeley Earth. Global Temperature Report for 2019. Available at: <a href=\"http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/\">http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/2019-temperatures/</a>.{/ref} This period from 1951 to 1980 is similar to the period global average time series shown in the section above.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a couple of key points that stand out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Firstly, the global average temperature rise is usually given as the combined temperature change across both land and the sea surface. But it&#8217;s important to note that land areas change temperature, both warming and cooling much more than oceanic areas.{ref}This is because water has a higher &#8216;<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_heat_capacity#:~:text=The%20specific%20heat%20capacity%20of,one%20unit%20in%20its%20temperature.\">specific heat capacity</a>&#8216; than land, meaning it we would need to add more thermal energy to increase its temperature by one degree relative to the same mass of land.{/ref} Overall, global average temperatures over land have increased around twice as much as the ocean. Compared to the 1951 \u2013 1980 average, temperatures over land increased by 1.32 \u00b1 0.04 \u00b0C. Whereas, the ocean surface temperature (excluding areas of sea ice) increased by only 0.59 \u00b1 0.06 \u00b0C.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass, this also means that the change in average temperature north of the equator has been higher than in the south.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Secondly, from the map shown, we see that in some regions the temperature change has been much more extreme. At very high latitudes \u2013 especially near the Poles \u2013 warming has been upwards of 3\u00b0C, and in some cases exceeding 5\u00b0C. These are, unfortunately, often the regions that could experience the largest impacts such as sea ice, permafrost, and glacial melt.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Monitoring the average global temperature change is important, but we should also be aware of how differently this warming is distributed across the world. In some regions, warming is much more extreme.</p>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h2>How are greenhouse gas emissions and concentrations changing?</h2>\n\n\n\n<h3>Atmospheric concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> continue to rise</h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/climate-change?facet=none&amp;country=~OWID_WRL&amp;Metric=CO%E2%82%82+concentrations&amp;Long-run+series%3F=true&amp;hideControls=true\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>To slow down \u2013 with the eventual aim of halting \u2013 rising global temperatures, we need to stabilize concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> and other greenhouse gases in Earth&#8217;s atmosphere.{ref}IPCC, 2013:&nbsp;<em>Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</em>&nbsp;[Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp.{/ref} This link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations \u2013 especially CO<sub>2</sub> \u2013 has been true throughout Earth&#8217;s history.{ref}Lacis, A. A., Schmidt, G. A., Rind, D., &amp; Ruedy, R. A. (2010). <a href=\"https://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6002/356\">Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth\u2019s temperature</a>.&nbsp;<em>Science</em>,&nbsp;<em>330</em>(6002), 356-359.{/ref} It&#8217;s important to note that there is a &#8216;lag&#8217; between atmospheric concentrations and final temperature rise \u2013 this means that when we do finally manage to stabilize atmospheric concentrations, temperatures will continue to slowly rise for years to decades.{ref}Mitchell, J. F. B., Johns, T. C., Ingram, W. J., &amp; Lowe, J. A. (2000). <a href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/1999GL011213\">The effect of stabilising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on global and regional climate change</a>.&nbsp;<em>Geophysical Research Letters</em>,&nbsp;<em>27</em>(18), 2977-2980.{/ref}<sup>,</sup>{ref}Samset, B.H., Fuglestvedt, J.S. &amp; Lund, M.T. <a href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17001-1\">Delayed emergence of a global temperature response after emission mitigation</a>.&nbsp;<em>Nature Communications,</em>&nbsp;<strong>11,&nbsp;</strong>3261 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17001-1.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, far from stabilizing concentrations, greenhouse gases continue to accumulate.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the chart here we see global average concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere over the past 800,000 years. Over this period we see consistent fluctuations in CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations; these periods of rising and falling CO<sub>2</sub> coincide with the onset of ice ages (low CO<sub>2</sub>) and interglacials (high CO<sub>2</sub>).{ref}Bernhard Bereiter, Sarah Eggleston, Jochen Schmitt, Christoph Nehrbass-Ahles, Thomas F. Stocker, Hubertus Fischer, Sepp Kipfstuhl and Jerome Chappellaz. 2015. Revision of the EPICA Dome C CO2 record from 800 to 600\u2009kyr before present.&nbsp;<em>Geophysical Research Letters</em>. . doi: 10.1002/2014GL061957.{/ref} These periodic fluctuations are caused by changes in the Earth&#8217;s orbit around the sun \u2013 called <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles\">Milankovitch cycles</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over this long period, atmospheric concentrations of  CO<sub>2</sub> did not exceed 300 parts per million (ppm). This changed with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of human emissions of CO<sub>2</sub> from burning <a href=\"https://owid.cloud/fossil-fuels\">fossil fuels</a>. We see a rapid rise in global CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations over the past few centuries, and in recent decades in particular. For the first time in over 800,000 years, concentrations did not only rise above 300ppm but are now well over 400ppm.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not only the <em>level</em> of change CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere that matters, but also the <em>rate</em> that this has changed. Historical changes in CO2 concentrations tended to occur over centuries or even thousands of years. It took us a matter of decades to achieve even larger changes. This gives species, planetary systems, and ecosystems much less time to adapt.</p>\n\n\n    <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n        <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/atmospheric-concentrations</link-url>\n        <title>Explore data on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases</title>\n        <content>\n\n<p>How have concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide changed over time?</p>\n\n</content>\n        <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"1\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/06/global-co-concentration-ppm.svg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"600\" width=\"850\" /></figure>\n    </block></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h3>Global emissions have not yet peaked</h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co-emissions-by-region\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>To stabilize (or even reduce) concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere, the world needs to reach net-zero emissions. This requires large and fast reductions in emissions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are we making progress towards this? How far are we from this target?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>At a time when global emissions need to be falling, they are in fact still rising, as the chart here shows. The world has not yet peaked.</p>\n\n\n    <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n        <link-url>http://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions</link-url>\n        <title>Explore data on CO2 emissions</title>\n        <content>\n\n<p>How have global emissions changed over time? How do annual, per capita, consumption-based, and historical emissions compare across the world?</p>\n\n</content>\n        <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"1\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/06/co-emissions-per-capita.svg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"600\" width=\"850\" /></figure>\n    </block>\n\n    <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n        <link-url>http://ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions</link-url>\n        <title>Explore data on other greenhouse gas emissions</title>\n        <content>\n\n<p>CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas that affects warming. How have total greenhouse gas emissions; methane; and nitrous oxide changed over time?</p>\n\n</content>\n        <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"1\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/06/total-ghg-emissions.svg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"600\" width=\"850\" /></figure>\n    </block></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h3>Current climate policies will reduce emissions, but not quickly enough to reach international targets</h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"768\" height=\"530\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2018/04/Greenhouse-gas-emission-scenarios-01-768x530.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18956\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2018/04/Greenhouse-gas-emission-scenarios-01-768x530.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2018/04/Greenhouse-gas-emission-scenarios-01-400x276.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2018/04/Greenhouse-gas-emission-scenarios-01-798x550.png 798w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2018/04/Greenhouse-gas-emission-scenarios-01-150x103.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2018/04/Greenhouse-gas-emission-scenarios-01-1536x1059.png 1536w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2018/04/Greenhouse-gas-emission-scenarios-01-2048x1412.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<h5>Related charts</h5>\n\n\n    <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n        <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-mitigation-15c</link-url>\n        <title>Emissions reductions needed to stay below 1.5<strong>\u00b0</strong>C</title>\n        <content>\n\n<p>How quickly would we need to reduce emissions to keep global average temperature rise below 1.5<strong>\u00b0</strong>C?</p>\n\n</content>\n        <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"1\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/co2-mitigation-15c.svg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"600\" width=\"850\" /></figure>\n    </block>\n\n    <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n        <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-mitigation-2c</link-url>\n        <title>Emissions reductions needed to stay below 2<strong>\u00b0</strong>C</title>\n        <content>\n\n<p>How quickly would we need to reduce emissions to keep global average temperature rise below 2<strong>\u00b0</strong>C?</p>\n\n</content>\n        <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"1\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2020/07/co2-mitigation-2c.svg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"600\" width=\"850\" /></figure>\n    </block></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>Current policies to reduce, or at least slow down growth, in CO<sub>2</sub> and other greenhouse gas emissions will have some impact on reducing future warming.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we see in the chart shown here, current implemented climate and energy policies would reduce warming relative to a world with no climate policies in place. This chart maps out future greenhouse gas emissions scenarios under a range of assumptions: if no climate policies were implemented; if current policies continued; if all countries achieved their current future pledges for emissions reductions; and necessary pathways which are compatible with limiting warming to 1.5<strong>\u00b0</strong>C or 2<strong>\u00b0</strong>C of warming this century.{ref}The underlying data for this chart is sourced from the <a href=\"https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/\">Climate Action Tracker</a> \u2013 based on policies and pledges as of November 2021.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If countries achieved their current &#8216;Pledges&#8217; (also shown on the chart), this would be an even further improvement. In this regard, the world is making some progress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if our aim is to limit warming to &#8220;well below 2\u00b0C&#8221; \u2013 as is laid out in the Paris Agreement \u2013 we are clearly far off track. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at the&nbsp;Center for International Climate Research&nbsp;(CICERO), mapped out the global emissions reduction scenarios necessary to limit global average warming to 1.5\u00b0C and 2\u00b0C. Based on the IPCC\u2019s Special Report on 1.5\u00b0C and Michael Raupach&#8217;s work, published in&nbsp;<em>Nature</em>&nbsp;<em>Climate Change</em>, these mitigation curves show that urgent and rapid reductions in emissions would be needed to achieve either target.{ref}Rogelj, J., D. Shindell, K. Jiang, S. Fifita, P. Forster, V. Ginzburg, C. Handa, H. Kheshgi, S. Kobayashi, E. Kriegler, L. Mundaca,R. S\u00e9f\u00e9rian, and M.V.Vilari\u00f1o, 2018:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/SR15_Chapter2_Low_Res.pdf\">Mitigation Pathways Compatible with 1.5\u00b0C in the Context of Sustainable Development. In: Global Warming of 1.5\u00b0C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty</a>&nbsp;[Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. P\u00f6rtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. P\u00e9an, R. Pidcock, S. Connors,<br>J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)]. In Press.{/ref}<sup>,</sup>{ref}Raupach, M. R., Davis, S. J., Peters, G. P., Andrew, R. M., Canadell, J. G., Ciais, P., \u2026 &amp; Le Quere, C. (2014). Sharing a quota on cumulative carbon emissions.&nbsp;<em>Nature Climate Change</em>,&nbsp;<em>4</em>(10), 873-879.{/ref}<sup>,</sup>{ref}United Nations Environment Programme (2019). Emissions Gap Report 2019. UNEP, Nairobi.{/ref} And the longer we delay a peak in emissions, the more drastic these reductions would need to be.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We may be making slow progress relative to a world without any climate policies, but we are still far from the rates of progress we&#8217;d need to achieve international targets.</p>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h3>Which countries have set net-zero emissions targets?</h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/net-zero-targets?country=SVN~MCO~ECU~AFG~GMB~PER~BGR~SEN\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/net-zero-target-set?country=SGP~NZL~CHN~GNB~ZWE~MYS~USA~CZE\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>Whilst current climate <em>policies</em> fall well short of what&#8217;s needed to keep temperatures below 1.5<strong>\u00b0</strong>C or 2<strong>\u00b0</strong>C, countries have set more ambitious <em>targets</em> to reach net-zero emissions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These interactive maps show the status of net-zero emissions targets across the world. This is based on the latest data from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit&#8217;s <a href=\"https://www.zerotracker.net/\">Net Zero Scorecard</a>.{ref}<em>Thomas Hale, Takeshi Kuramochi, John Lang, Brendan Mapes, Steve Smith, Ria Aiyer, Richard Black, Mirte Boot, Peter Chalkley, Frederic Hans, Nick Hay, Angel Hsu, Niklas H\u00f6hne, Silke Mooldijk, Tristram Walsh. Net Zero Tracker. Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, Data-Driven EnviroLab, NewClimate Institute, Oxford Net Zero. 2021.</em>{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The target year to reach net zero varies by country \u2013 you can see the target year for each country by hovering over it on the map.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note that the inclusion criteria may vary from country to country. For example, some countries may include international aviation and shipping in their net-zero commitment, while others do not. Or, some may allow for carbon offsets while others will not accept them. You can dig deeper into the specifics of each country&#8217;s criteria <a href=\"https://www.zerotracker.net/\">here</a>.</p>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Can we make progress in reducing emissions?</h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-emissions-and-gdp?country=~SWE\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<h5>Some countries reduced emissions whilst increasing GDP&nbsp;\u2013 even when we take into account outsourced production</h5>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a strong link between CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, prosperity, and standards of living. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, if we&#8217;re to ask the question: &#8220;Have any countries demonstrated that we can make progress in reducing emissions?&#8221;, they would have to achieve both:</p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>High standards of living;</li><li>Low levels of emissions, or at least large reductions in emissions to maintain that standard of living.</li></ol>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many countries that meet one criterion: rich countries that have high standards of living, but also high levels of emissions; and poor countries that have low levels of emissions but poor standards of living.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, some countries <em>have</em> shown signs of progress. A number of countries have shown in recent years that it is possible to increase GDP whilst also reducing emissions. We see this in the chart which shows the change in GDP and annual CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Both production- and consumption-based CO<sub>2</sub> emissions are shown \u2013 consumption-based emissions are corrected for traded goods and services, so we can see whether emissions reductions were<em> only</em> achieved by &#8220;offshoring&#8221; production to other countries.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A number of countries \u2013 such as the USA, UK, France, Spain, Italy, and many others \u2013 have managed to reduce emissions (even when we correct for trade) whilst increasing GDP.</p>\n\n\n\n<h5>The more important question is &#8220;Can we make progress <em>fast enough</em>?&#8221;</h5>\n\n\n\n<p>So we can see numerous examples of countries, with high standards of living, which have been successful in reducing emissions. This is a clear signal that it is possible to make progress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the key question here is probably less: &#8220;can we make progress?&#8221;, but rather &#8220;can we make progress fast enough?&#8221;. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we explored earlier in this article, the world is currently far off-track from our 2<strong>\u00b0</strong>C target. If this is our definition of &#8220;fast enough&#8221; then we have little historical evidence to suggest that most, or even some, countries can reduce emissions (whilst maintaining high living standards) at the speed needed to achieve this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We <em>can</em> make progress, but it&#8217;s currently too slow. We need a large-scale acceleration of these efforts across the world.</p>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h2>How do we make progress in reducing emissions?</h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-sticky-left\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>To make progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there are two fundamental areas we need to focus on: <strong><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/energy\">energy</a> </strong>(this encapsulates electricity, heat, transport, and industrial activities) and <strong>food and agriculture</strong> (which includes agriculture and land use change, since agriculture <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food\">dominates global land use</a>). </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Below we&#8217;ve listed some of the key actions we need to make progress in each area. At a very basic level they can be summarised by two core concepts: <strong>improving efficiency</strong> (using less energy to produce a given output; and using less land, fertilizer, and other inputs for food production, and reducing food waste); and <strong>transitioning to low-carbon alternatives</strong> (in energy, this means shifting to renewables and nuclear; for food, this means substituting carbon-intensive products for those with a lower carbon footprint).</p>\n\n\n\n<h4>How can we decarbonize our energy systems?</h4>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong>Shift towards low-carbon electricity (reduce carbon intensity \u2013 carbon per unit energy)</strong><br>\u2013 Renewables<br>\u2013 Nuclear energy<br>\u2013 Shift from coal to gas (which emits less CO<sub>2</sub> per unit of energy) as an interim step<br>\u2192 <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy\"><strong>Explore our work</strong></a> on energy.<br>\u2192 <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-fuel\"><strong>Explore our data</strong></a> on CO2 emissions by fuel type.<br></li><li>Shift sectors such as transport, towards electricity. Some energy sectors are harder to decarbonize \u2013 for example, transport. We, therefore, need to shift these forms towards electricity where we have viable low-carbon technologies.<br>\u2192<strong> <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector\">Explore our data</a> </strong>on greenhouse gas emissions by sector.<br></li><li><strong>Develop low-cost low-carbon energy and battery technologies.</strong> To do this quickly, and allow lower-income countries to avoid high-carbon development pathways, low-carbon energy needs to be cost-effective and the default choice.<br></li><li><strong>Improve energy efficiency \u2013 energy per unit GDP.</strong><br>\u2192<strong> <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-intensity\">Explore our data</a> </strong>on energy intensity.</li></ol>\n\n\n\n<h4>How can we reduce emissions from food production and agriculture?</h4>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong>Reduce meat and dairy consumption, especially in higher-income countries. </strong>Shift dietary patterns towards lower-carbon food products. This includes eating less meat and dairy generally but also substituting high-impact meats (e.g. beef and lamb) for chicken, fish, or eggs. Innovation in meat substitutes could also play a large role here.<br>         \u2192<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local\" target=\"_blank\"> Read our article</a> </strong>on the carbon footprint of meat and dairy versus alternative foods.<br>         \u2192<strong> <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production\">Explore our work</a> </strong>on meat and dairy production.<br></li><li><strong>Promote lower-carbon meat and dairy production.</strong> We are not going to cut out meat and dairy products completely any time soon (and doing so is unnecessary \u2013 large reductions would be sufficient). This makes the promotion of lower-carbon production methods essential.<br>          \u2192<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat\" target=\"_blank\"> Read our article</a> </strong>on the large differences in carbon footprint for specific meat and dairy products.<br></li><li><strong>Improve crop yields.</strong> Sustainable intensification of agriculture allows us to grow more food on less land. This could help to prevent deforestation from agricultural expansion, and frees up land for replanting, or giving back to natural ecosystems.<br>          \u2192<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields\" target=\"_blank\"> Explore our work</a></strong> on crop yields.<br></li><li><strong>Reduce food waste.</strong> Around one-third of food emissions come from food that is lost in supply chains or wasted by consumers. Improving harvesting techniques, refrigeration, transport, and packaging in supply chains; and reducing consumer waste can reduce emissions significantly.<br>          \u2192 <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/food-waste-emissions\" target=\"_blank\">Read our article</a></strong> on GHG emissions from food waste. </li></ol>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\"></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n",
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    "excerpt": {
        "rendered": "Who is emitting greenhouse gases? Which countries and which sectors? And what needs to happen to reduce emissions?",
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    "date_gmt": "2020-05-11T15:30:00",
    "modified": "2023-10-16T20:13:41",
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    "authors_name": [
        "Hannah Ritchie",
        "Max Roser",
        "Pablo Rosado"
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Links from other tables